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Nutrients
To survive, you'll probably want to collect some nutrients. The term Nutrients is used loosely in the game as molecules your bacteria can collect and use to get energy, or build other things. To collect nutrients just run over them in the game and your bacterium will eat it (like Pac-man). Although, some nutrients can be created inside the cell. The most important reason you'll want to collect nutrients is to increase your size so you can divide and create more bacteria. Different nutrients have different effects on your size depending on how important they are, but the game doesn't require you gather any specific nutrient to increase your size. Nucleotides are also neaded for division so you can copy your DNA and create a second genome for your new bacteria. The second reason to collect Nutrients is that they will drive you metabolism and provide you with energy. This energy can then be used to move your bacteria. The way you use these nutrients for energy is highly customizable and highly complex (see 8.redox tower) The images of the nutrients although based on how a single molecule (or atom) looks like, represents a clump of molecules of that nutrient. List of Nutrients Functional Groups Different Nutrients can have different functions depending on how you want to use them, not all nutrients are usefull in all situations. Therefore it helps to break down the nutrients into groups on how they can help you Basic Nutrients These are nutrients all bacteria can consume, they also don't have the option to turn off or on their transport into the cell. They are also not directly involved in metabolism. Nutrients of this type inclue : Free energy, Health, Nucleotides, Phosphorus. Saccharides Sugars!! The large diversity of sugars and sugar metabolism is represented in this game by only 3 molecules. Monosaccaride = single sugar. Disacharide = double sugar. Polysaccaride = multiple sugar. These 3 molecules can be interchanged to be one another, but monosacharide is the only one that can be used for metabolism. Monosacharides are also used as your carbon source. Gaseous and environmental nutrients These nutrients are not represented by any sprite in the game, but can still be used for metabolism. They also diffuse freely in and out of the cell, so what ever the level of this is in the environment is the level in your cell. Examples include : Oxygen, Light, Hydrogen, and Carbon Dioxide. Cytoplasmic nutrients Nutrients made inside the cell and not found in the environment. These nutrients, you don't have to worry about collecting in the environment, but you do have to worry about making them in your cell. Each time your cell divides, these nutrients (just like every other nutrient) will be halved. So if you use one of these molecules for metabolism, make sure you have a healthy level of it in your cell. This group can be split into whether you make the nutrient from protein (amino acids) or your carbon source Electron Donor Metabolism is about moving around electrons and capturing energy in the process. So for that, one of the molecules you collect will need to act as an electron donor, giving off one or more electrons to start the process. This molecule will be the starting molecule for your metabolism. There's a wide varitey of options for what can act as this molecule Electron Acceptor Just as you need one molecule to release an electron, every molecule after that needs to be an electron acceptor which "catches" the electron. If this molecule is in the final step of you metabolism it is the final electron acceptor. For more information see 8. Redox Tower Waste Depending on how you set up your metabolism, some nutrients may accumulate as wastes, you'll want to release these nutrients into the environment as they are useless to you. See 7. Transport Harmful Molecules 5 molecules can be found in the environment which can harm your bacteria in different situations. Category:Nutrition Category:Metabolism